Shapeways Reviews

Unseen tax, payed for shipping which was pretty expensive and after i received the item i get a letter from ups saying i need to pay the shipping once again, exactly same amount as on the order! pretty great huh?

Date of experience: May 29, 2024

Update: Increased from 1 star to 3 stars. I'm very grateful for the excellent customer service from the Shapeways team in recognising the error, refunding part of the payment where there has been miscalculations, and for their commitment to review how any further tax payments are highlighted at the checkout. Can't really give higher as some of those changes haven't yet been implemented and this was a very stressful experience for myself and a disabled family member. Nonetheless my faith in the company has been restored and I look forward to shopping with them again.

I have been left with a completely avoidable £59 charge having spent over £150 already with them. They don't calculate the tax if you spend over £135 which there was no reference to whatsoever on the checkout. Had I known I simply wouldn't have spent above this amount (perfectly possible with my order) and now I risk losing it entirely. All I needed was a sentence referencing the policy and this could have been avoided, rather than diving into their FAQ's after the exorbitant charge from UPS!

Date of experience: May 28, 2024

Great website, interface, checkout and whatnot. However after paying $200+ and placing an order, I immediately received an email saying that what I purchased is not printable and the order will be cancelled in 7 days. I was beyond angry to learn that this business advertises products they're literally not capable of making and are aware of it. If you can automatically tell me this item isn't printable 0.1 seconds after paying for it, you can tell me it's not printable BEFORE I pay for the thing, or hey, just remove it from the website seeing as you cannot make or sell it. Blatant false advertising likely to make them look more skilled than they really are. All support emails are aggravating auto-robot replies that answer nothing. got issued a "refund" according to shapeways but have still yet to get my $200 back, will probably have to go to the bank and do a chargeback just to get my money back. I'd rather have gotten the item I attempted to purchase.

Save yourself the hassle (and money) and go to a real human model-maker.

Date of experience: May 01, 2024

I spent a week with their support trying to get my N Scale designs ready for Shapeways to sell my designs. Everything was uploaded and the renders looked good and gave the green light to print. On the first order everything was taken down that my details were too thin and would not survive there manufacturing. Adding the thickness they wanted to the models would ruin the look of the model.

I was able to print these fine on my home resin printer and the details did not break during cleanup, painting or assembly. Apperatly a $150 home use resin printer and real person can outperform a larger international company on quality, durability and handling.

Date of experience: March 21, 2024

I have been using Shapeways' service for quite some time. I am always happy and very satisfied with my orders. They are always perfect. The service is always fast and good when I have questions. This is important to me as a customer and that is why I keep coming back. I would definitely recommend them!
Great job and keep it up!

Date of experience: April 03, 2024

Quality: Highest quality "smoothest" polyjet covered with support material fused to the print. About half cant be used. All require extensive post production scraping and sanding. "Versatile" plastic has mediocre detail but ok for larger things.
Price: Doubled and tripled over last year with quality going down.
Service: Sometimes reprint for free or refund, but other times claim that cracked or prints covered with fused plastic are within guidelines.

Date of experience: May 13, 2019

I bought a camera lens adapter from these clowns. It is cheap plastic spryed or dipped in some kind of rough spray paint like stuff and the item does not fit. They refuse to refund and demand photos of my camera and strut about about like superior beings with no customer service skills. Phone dweebs in a garage with a keen gizmo 3d printer. Not reliable.

Date of experience: October 29, 2023

Top 3D printing service for artists and makers, both plastics and metal.
Most affordable sintered stainless steel as far as I know. Sls nylon cheap for big volumes with high void ratio.
Also cast metals, from brass to platinum, not easy to find elsewhere at those prices.
The design rules are very strict, sometimes too strict, but the results are usually excellent. The rare printing errors are managed quickly and totally refunded if correctly documented.

Date of experience: September 29, 2019

Terrrible customer service.

Parts consistently get refused for printing because of their insane policies.
Customer service agents are no help at all, once they've decided what the part is, that's that.
Maybe 10% of the steel prints are skewed or don't print correctly.

Date of experience: May 11, 2022

Very happy with my 3D printed metal part for my Panasonic breadmaker. No longer supplied by Panasonic, I can now continue to use my beloved breadmaker. I am a great believer in repairing not replacing when things are still serviceable. This ticks all my boxes. Quality product, better than original plastic part, arrived promptly. Great service. Thank you

Date of experience: October 06, 2021

The part I received did not include a second part that was pictured for proper operation. When I tried to inquire why I received only 1 of 2 parts and if the 2nd part could be ordered if I paid extra and it has been crickets.
Would never do business with them again.

Date of experience: December 13, 2023

I'm new to 3D printing and had several questions after receiving a few models. They were very helpful and got back to me in 24 hours. I set photos of the two objects they printed and they gave me tips on why one model seemed more refined than another. I wanted to use the least expensive method for printing but get the smoothest surface. They're helpful, professional and produce great parts. I'm excited to work with them going forward!

Date of experience: March 12, 2021

I have printed several orders at shapeways for thousand of euros since 2016. The service customer is becoming very bad unfortunately. They have shipped the last order ( paid rush mode) at the wrong address in the wrong city. I asked shapeways to help get the item or reprint and no help was given. at the end the ordre is not arrived. They should be more responsible i case of mistake. This is not acceptable and not professional.

Date of experience: January 12, 2022

Great service, very good products. I have ordered from Shapeways more than 10 times, every time the product was excellent.
I've had contact with customer service on several occasions and each time they were quick, very nice and knowledgeable.
Shipping is usually a bit faster than what they advertise, I did have a few orders that were shipped one or two days late.
The prices they offer are usually comparable wih their competitors. Shipping costs are a bit high, but the packaging was better than expected on most items.

Date of experience: August 31, 2020

Very bad experience (and expensive!). Firstly, they did not recommend the best material when asked, only after I did much research myself could I ascertain the best material for printing. Next, they messed up my order, and tried to blame me! They kept saying it was my fault, when clearly my order showed the correct models in the little pictures. Customer service were no help whatsoever. There must be a better printing service out there!

Date of experience: July 14, 2022

Terrible service, they lie and cheat. You are meant to be able to cancel order and have manual reviews of the files once ordered but they refuse to cancel your order and do not notify you that their reviewing your files by the printing engineers which they are meant too. They said I could order just to have my files checked then cancel but actually did not, they charged me and never refunded. The products were also broken upon delivery and were terribly made. I could not even paint them due to the poor quality.

Date of experience: November 19, 2018

Takes forever to get in contact with anyone. I planned to have an item programmed and produced but once I started dealing with the designer it took literally months to ever get in contact with the actual designer after dealing with 3-4 other "middle men". File came back and I printed it out myself . It needed a minor adjustment but I could get no one to respond to my requests. Just crickets. I suggest you spend the money to take a community college 3D design class. It will take far less time to learn to do it yourself and with far less agravation than dealing with Shapeways to get their customer service act together. There is a reason almost all reviews are 1star reviews. Too bad there is not a Zero star review

Date of experience: July 17, 2022

K. Courage Designs creates unique custom jewelry designs that Shapeways has helped us cast into beautiful sterling silver and bronze pieces. We are extremely pleased with the quality, ease of use, service, price, delivery timeliness and interactions with Shapeways professionals. Recent discussions with Shapeways’ Liz P has only reinforced our very high regard for the company. We consider them part of our team.

Date of experience: September 26, 2019

Wanted to let you know that the package arrived yesterday just fine.
The packing was surpureb and the contents were not damaged in the lest. I was very excited and pleased with the ammout of creativity and craftsmanship that went into the Blimps tiny air wing. I will send you many pictures of the finished project and some other suggestion for other parts I would like to have done in the future for some other 3-D drawings I am thinking about.
Oh well, CHEERS! MATE!

Date of experience: June 22, 2020

If you've ever wondered what outstanding customer service looks like, it's people like this.
My 3-D printed part was small, no bigger than a book of matches. You'd have thought it insignificant to see, but Shapeways treated it just like the most important part imaginable. I suspect they do this for everybody. The part fit perfectly, and was beautifully made.
James in customer service replied immediately to my questions, and kept me informed of the shipping status from start to finish.
Great outfit. Highly recommended.
Bruce

Date of experience: June 16, 2020